


How He Found You

by Beta_Be_Write



Category: Undertale
Genre: Asriel has some dark thoughts, Asriel is kinda bipolar, Flowey Asriel, Frisk Is Dead, Reader Is Not Frisk, Slight Mention of Blood, Underground, chapters will get longer with time, this will be short at first
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-05-28 14:49:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 15,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6333283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beta_Be_Write/pseuds/Beta_Be_Write
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asriel has been living underground ever since the barrier was broken by Frisk centuries ago. As he told them, he stayed there in order to tend the flowers, but there was another reason why he decided to stay.<br/>Ever since he felt Frisk die up on the surface, Asriel has not been visited by any human or monster. For all he knows, no one even remembers that he ever existed, and he excepted the solitude almost gratefully.<br/>That is, until he found you lying half dead on the bed of flowers that had once broken Frisk's fall.<br/>Asriel isn't in his child-like form in this story, he's a grown-up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not 100% sure where I'm going to go with this story. I have a basic idea, but I'm still working it out.  
> Updates may be kind of slow at first, but I'll do my best to make it as consistent as possible once I get this ball rolling.  
> Bye~♡  
> http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/038/264/816.png  
> This is what Asriel looks like in this fic. I don't own this picture. Love the artist's style though.

He couldn't stop staring. He honestly couldn't look away. His watering can hung, forgotten, in his paw, water dribbling from the spout and slowly seeping into the hem of his robe. Asriel stood at the edge of a patch of yellow flowers, gapping down at a human.

He had never once expected anyone to fall down the mountain again, the way Frisk had centuries ago.

The human lay face up in the flowers, face smooth and free of emotion, as if they were simply taking a nap among the petals as a ring of sunlight lit up their face. One hand lay relaxed by their side, the other one draped over their stomach. Their chest rose and fell slowly, only further proving that they were real, and not a figment of his imagination.

Asriel knelt down slowly, putting down the watering can before attempting to reach out and touch the human. He hesitated for a moment, drawing his nubby claws back when the human twitched. When they had stilled, he reached out again.

He had been lead back to the flower patch by the smell of something rather different than the normal smells of the underground. The odor had gotten significantly more potent as he neared the human, and as he nudged their head to the side for a moment, his suspicions were horribly confirmed. Blood leaked steadily from an enormous gash just above the human's neck, staining the flowers below it a light crimson. The cause if the gash was hidden stealthily beneath the stems of the flowers; a tiny rock that stuck out smartly, looking as though it had been buried in the dirt years ago. Its tip sparkled lightly with a dark red tint.

Asriel spared a moment to look at the human, their head still limp in his paw. "You could have been killed." Asriel muttered to himself, biting the inside of his cheek worriedly, _'Had they hit the rock any harder, or if it was sticking out of the ground any farther...they would have been killed instantly.'_

**IN THIS WORLD, IT'S KILL OR BE KILLED**

The unforgiving words hissed at him loudly from the back of his mind, causing him to snap his hand away from the human as if they had burned him. Their head rolled back into place over the rock, which dug itself harshly into the gash. The human winced slightly at the contact before settling back into unresponsiveness.

Asriel flinched at your expression but still away from the flowers quickly, knocking the watering can over. Vines crept out of the flowers weakly, seeming to trail after him, but withered as he got farther away from them. When they finally stopped following him, Asriel stopped and leaned against a pillar, clutching his head half-heartedly, not noticing the slight stain of blood that had soaked into his fingertips.

“SHUT UP.” He spoke slowly, pushing as much magic as he could into the words. “Now is not the time for this.”

**GOLLY, THAT'S MEAN. BUT YOU KNOW HOW THINGS WORK AROUND HERE.**

“Not anymore.”

 **WHAT? ARE YOU GONNA TRY TO** _**SAVE** _ **THEM?**

A tiny soul was pulled out of the human, Asriel slowly realizing that his hand had risen from its place on his head.

 **SEE THAT HEART? THEY WON’T LAST LONG. IT’S EVEN WEAKER THAN FRISK’S** _**SOUL** _ **WAS IN THE BEGINNING. WHY NOT JUST SHARE SOME** _**L** _ **O** _**V** _ **E WITH THEM AND FREE THEM FROM THEIR PAIN? THEY ARE NEW TO THE UNDERGROUND. THEY HAVEN’T HAD A CHANCE TO TRY** _**SAVING** _ **YET, SO WE WOULDN’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THEM AGAIN.**

One tiny pellet drifted out of Asriel’s open palm, hovering and spinning, waiting to be sent out and take out the human’s feeble SOUL.

**BECAUSE, SERIOUSLY, DO YOU REALLY WANT T0 HAVE TO TURN INT-**

He snapped his hand shut around the pellet, destroying it before the voice could continue.

**…**

**YoU IdIoT.**

**YoU ThInK ThEy’Ll bE LiKe fRiSk? Or mAyBe eVeN LiKe cHaRa?**

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

**YOU’LL REGRET PASSING UP AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE THIS. THEY WON'T UNDERSTAND YOU, OR WHAT YOU ARE.**

The voice drifted away, hissing with muted laughter into the back of Asriel’s mind.

After a moment, Asriel stood up, unwilling to believe that the other had actually left without a significant _fight_. However, the voice stayed away, hidden.

Asriel made his way back to the human, stepping carefully around the dead plant tendrils as he went. No knew plants crept out after him, even as he stepped gingerly on the golden flowers.

He knelt down next to the human again, reaching out to pick up their head with his bloodied hand, using his other hand to pick them up at the knees. He stood slowly, doing his best not to jar their injuries. He gave them a quick inspection as he stood, and noted that their shoulder and arm were both badly broken.

He willed gentle pulses of magic into their appendages, not certain if it would actually help them. He knew that it wouldn't help if the human was poisoned, but he was certain that they hadn't tried to eat the flowers. He hadn't tried to use his magic in a long time though, having no reason to in the past five hundred years, and he couldn't tell if the magic would even help the human.

It couldn't hurt to try though, right?

He turned around, stepping lightly out of the petals, back onto the stone floor, and the dead plants. After a moment of thought, Ariel walked over the plants, not wishing to risk losing his footing simply for trying to walk around the dead vines. He did make sure to step down on the tendrils a little more harshly than was necessary, flicking the scraps of dried plant off of his heels when he had cleared them.

A light hissing threatened to erupt in the back of his head, obviously peeved about his choice of choosing the human over the flowers. A glimpse of the knocked over watering can only served to solidify that point. Asriel looked pointedly over his shoulder, his grip tightening on the human ever so slightly as he looked back at the bloodied flowers.

"I can come back tomorrow, or later if I have to, to deal with that. Just because I have a human to take care of doesn't mean that I'll forget to tend to the flowers. I said I would, remember?"

He turned back towards the interior of the Ruins, lessening his grip on the human. He kept directing the flow of his magic into their wounds, hoping that it would do something to alleviate their pain, all the while mentally forcing the voice to silence its hissing and disappear back into the hidden corners of his mind.


	2. His Presence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You sort of wake up, and Asriel is still kind of clueless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEEEY GUYS sorry I didn't post sooner. Almost as soon as I had posted the first chapter, I had a serious brain fart and couldn't remember where I was going to go with the second chapter.  
> Now then. This: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> is sort of meant to represent a text box or something of the same type from the game. If you guys don't like it much, I won't do it in the future. I think it might be a one-time thing though.

Asriel trotted slowly through the Ruins, hesitant to walk over most of the puzzles, nervous that he might fall through the leaves or drop your body on the spikes. You had yet to wake up, but the magic seemed to have some sort of an effect on you. Your head kept rolling from side to side in his hand, constantly making him readjust his paw.

He couldn't help but feel nervous as he walked, contemplating how you might react when you woke up. Frisk had never given him many details on the relations regarding humans and monster, and since then something might have happened to further drive the humans into hatred. He desperately hoped you would remain calm, that you were like Frisk in the sense that you wouldn't try to kill him.

He eventually made it through the Ruins, deciding that his mother's home would be the best place to stop for the time being. He didn't want to risk jarring you, or give himself any chance to hurt you, by choice or by accident.

The door swung open lightly as he backed into it, ducking his head so that his enormous horns could clear the doorway.  Asriel wasted no time making his way through the house, finding Toriel's room easily and carefully setting your limp form on the mattress.

When he had you settled, Asriel took a step back, placing his paw on your head. He drew it away after a moment, feeling the fever heat coming from your forehead quite easily. Asriel cradled his paw, looking at you worriedly.

You were lying prone on the enormous bed, your injured arm hanging uselessly over the side of the bed. The back of your head was still slick with drying blood, but he could see that you were no longer losing copious amounts of blood. Your arm and shoulder seemed to be doing much better as well, so his magic had obviously done something worthwhile, even if he felt a tad bit drained at the moment. His own fatigue could be taken care of at another time.

You were in a much more critical condition.

Asriel hadn’t had much experience with healing, but he knew basic things from his time with Chara. He lifted your hand back onto the bed, onto your stomach, before leaving the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*You wake up slowly, making no attempt to open your eyes.

*Your ears are filled with nothing with white noise, but you can feel something wet on the back of your head.

*You try to move your arm off of your torso, but it does nothing but twitch at the effort.

*Your mind feels fuzzy; you can’t seem to focus on anything around you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Asriel trotted back into the room, a bowl of warm water and some small gray and brown towels in his paws. His horns snagged on the doorway for a moment, and he almost dropped the bowl in his struggle to right himself. When he had finally made it past the doorway Asriel sat down by your head, dipping a towel in the bowl.

He slid his paw gently under your hair, tilting your head forward so that he could slip the cloth under your neck. He rubbed as gently as he could against the cut, washing the blood from your hair as he went. Every once in a while Asriel would dip the cloth back into the bowl, or, when it grew too bloody to be of any help, he would trade it for another towel. He kept up the routine until the majority of the blood was washed away.

Taking the last clean wet towel, Asriel folded it neatly and pressed it softly on your forehead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*You feel something damp against your head.

*It feels slightly uncomfortable.

*You let out a small whine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Asriel froze. He stayed perfectly still, straining to hear. He was almost certain that the human had done something, but they still had not moved from the bed. He left the cloth on your forehead, leaning down slowly to let his ear drape itself lightly over your mouth. It hovered just over it, leaving you plenty of room to breathe, but still close enough to hear anything you might say.

There was a long, tense moment, but the silence persisted until Asriel began to draw back.

A tiny whine hitched out of your mouth, and Asriel shot up, staring down at you. You continued whimpering as he stared, water from the towel dripping slowly down your cheeks. He darted forward, scooping his paw under your head and lifting you into a sitting position. The towel fell off of your forehead and onto your lap, wetting your pant leg as Asriel kneeled on the bed.

“Hello?” he whispered gently, “Are you awake? Can you hear me?”

Your head rolled forward, resting on your collar before you attempted to pick it back up. As you forced your neck to cooperate, Asriel seemed to realize why you were struggling. He used his free hand to place his hand under your chin, propping up your head.

“Are you alright? How are you feeling?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*You manage to pry open your eyes.

*You see a large, white, blurry figure in front of you.

*You try to speak, but nothing happens.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh?” Asriel first seemed confused, “OH. Right, got it.”

He put you back down onto the bed before dashing back out of the room, tripping over the bowl of dark pinkish-red water and spilling it over the carpet. You can’t help but wince as the cloth rubs up against the gash on your neck.

Asriel darted back into the room holding a small cup. He picked you back up, touching the water to your mouth. For a moment you hesitated, afraid that you would just cough up the fluid, but Asriel persisted until you accepted. The water flowed effortlessly down your throat, smoothing down the rough feeling.

When you had finally finished the water Asriel tried to coax some words out of you.

“Can you speak? ”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*You try to speak again.

*You ask the blurry figure a question.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Am I dad?”

“…What?”

“Are ya God? Is ‘his the af’erlife?”

“…”

“Waz goin’ on?”

“The magic must have been too strong for you after all. Maybe applying it to your head was the wrong thing to do. Sorry about that.” Asriel muttered, almost to himself, as he cradled you a little more securely.

“Who are… wha’s goin’…”

“I found you out in the Ruins…You wouldn’t know what that is… uh…” Asriel grasped desperately around in his mind, trying to figure out how he could explain things to you. You were extremely dazed from the magic sloshing around in your head, but you were still trying to understand what was happening.

“Who… god…”

“Oh uh…” was it okay to tell you who he was?

**THEY’LL JUST BE AFRAID OF YOU. THE SECOND YOU LEAVE THEM ALONE THEY’LL FIND THE KITCHEN. THEY’LL FIND THE KNIVES. YOU KNOW HOW IT’LL GO : ]**

Asriel shook his head like a dog, rocking you slightly.

_No, they’ll be fine. There’s no reason for me to_ not _to tell them._

“Well, um,” he started slowly, not sure if he should actually tell you. “I’m Asriel, the Absolute God of…Hyper…Death.” He trailed off, lifting one of his paws off of you to fumble with one of his ears, quickly adding “but you don’t have to be afraid or anything, really, I wouldn’t, well, wouldn’t kill you or anything… it's just…what I am?”

He mentally face-palmed himself, the voice laughing hysterically.

**NICE JOB.**

_Shut up._

“…’kay.”

Asriel’s attention shot back down to you as your head rolled around again.

“Is there anything I can get you…while you recover from the magic…overdose?” He honestly didn’t really know what to call it, but it seemed like it was the closest he would get.

“…’urts.” You muttered weakly after a second of thought.

“Hurts? Something hurts?” He remembered the gash on your head. “Right, that probably doesn’t help. I just need to grab some bandages and things, maybe get you some food to eat if you feel up to it. I’ll be right back, just stay here for now.”

He put you back down slowly before sliding off the bed, trotting out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*You try to put together a full thought.

*You’re able to put together some of what the blurry figure had said.

*You remember that he(?) said that he was the God of something.

*You struggle to remember, determined to make sense of his words.

*You figure out what you had heard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You shoot up from the bed, immediately regretting the action when it sends you careening into a bookshelf. Old tomes fall from the shelves onto your feet, revealing weathered, yellowed pages covered in illustrations on snails. You pull your feet out of the books, tripping and landing hard on your knees, resulting in a loud _THUNK_. A clattering sound followed from somewhere past the door, like the God had dropped something, startled by the noise. You felt him pounding back towards the door.

Panic instantly darkened your vision, but you manage to launch yourself across the floor and slam the door hard enough to shake the frame. You can feel the blood rush quickly to the back of your head, feel blood suddenly start to run down the back of your neck as the magically healed wound reopened. You see the blurry figure rushing at the door just as it crashed closed, and you collapse on the floor. You can hear the God smash into the door; hear him fall to the floor on the other side. You twist around on the floor searching for a way out; hunting for a way to escape from the God of Absolute HyperDeath as your vision began to tunnel in on itself.

Your vision turned completely black as he began the rattle at the door, thanking whatever luck you had left that the door seemed to have locked itself.

You didn’t see the tiny creeping vines that had lifted out of a potted plant by the bed, or the spines that seemed to stretch toward you from the cactus-like plant in the corner of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you all know, a lot of things were spelled wrong when the reader started talking because they needed to sound delirious. "Dad" was a zonked out version of "dead".  
> The text box things were only really there to show you all what you were kind of thinking while you were semiconscious, so it probably won't come up again in the future.  
> Thanks for reading guys ^-^  
> Tell me what you think below, if you feel like it.  
> 


	3. What did I do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY I WANTED TO POST MUCH MUCH EARLIER BUT I LITERALLY COULDN'T.

Asriel scrapped and pulled at the doorknob. He ignored the throbbing pain in his nose, having smashed into the door in his haste to make it to the human. He had been in the kitchen, trying to remember what his sibling liked to eat, and wondering where his mother might have kept her medical supplies when an enormous crash had sounded from your room. He had sprinted back through the house, tripping over everything he passed as he worked his way back to your room. Just as he had made it to your door however, it had been slammed shut, and he hadn’t had any time to slow down as he crashed head first into the wood.

He had ricochet backwards and landed hard on his tail, almost rolling backwards from the force. In an instant though, Asriel shot back upwards and grabbed at the doorknob.

For whatever reason the door had locked itself, but he couldn’t remember if the door even had a lock to begin with. It had slammed quite hard; maybe it had jammed in the door frame?

 He wrenched and pushed as hard as he could, trying to work the door free as quickly as possible. What had that crash been? Why-how- had the door closed? WHY IN THE NAME OF MT. EBOTT WAS IT SO STUCK?!

A slight whimper escaped from behind the door, almost far too quiet to hear. He wasn’t even sure he had even heard anything, but it still made Asriel freeze against the door.

Would the human even want to be near him? Had they been the one to close the door like this? Maybe they were even the one holding it shut…

**WHAT EXACTLY WERE YOU EXPECTING, HM? YOU BASICALLY TOLD THEM THAT YOU WERE THE GOD OF DEATH. NOBODY LIKES THE IDEA OF DYING. C:**

Asriel pulled away from the door slowly, hesitantly. Were you really afraid of him? Or was his voice just lying to him again? He didn’t know if he wanted to risk it.

 _Maybe if I leave them alone, they might warm up to me_ , he couldn’t help wishing, _but what was I thinking, telling them I was the God of Absolute HyperDeath, That was so stupid._

He rubbed his eyes hard. He couldn’t just leave you in there though. You still had an injury that needed treatment. You were in pain and yet somehow you had still made it to the door, and maybe you were even managing to hold it shut despite how hard he had tried to get in. Maybe all that action had even made your injury worse. Maybe you had whimpered in pain, not fear?

He couldn’t help feeling guilty at the fact that he perked up at that thought. He was excited that you could possibly be in pain; how utterly disgusting of him.

Asriel looked back at the door, then kneeled down to try to peek under the door, through the crack. The room was dark, but if you were hurt again, then you might be on the floor. If he saw any red marks on the carpet, he would burn his way through the door if he had to.

He couldn’t see a dang thing.

THAT WAS DOOMED TO FAIL FROM THE START. I MEAN HONESTLY.

_Just shut up already._

The voice receded, and Asriel stood back up, edging closer to the door, listening intently as he scratched at it gently.

“Human?” he spoke gently, “If you are injured, I can treat you.”

…

“If you become hungry, I can bring food to you. I can even set it outside of the room if it would make you happy.”

…

“I will leave the bandages outside as well, if you really are hurt again.”

…

 “I promise that I don’t mean you any harm, really. I am really the only one that even accepts that ‘God’ title. I’ve put it completely behind me. I promise that I won’t do anything to you, especially kill.”

…

 “It might be hard to treat the back of your head though, so if you allow me to treat it I promise to not do anything that could upset you.”

**_THEY AREN’T GOING TO ANSWER._ **

_I thought I told you to shut up. More than once, in fact._

 

 

Behind the door, still hidden in the dark of the room, you struggled desperately to stay conscious. The person at the other side of the door was slamming into, sounding borderline frantic to get back in. If you fell asleep, you had no doubt the God would kill you the second he was in the room. The thought of how he could kill you sent a light whimper out of your throat.

You cut it off as quickly as you could manage, but the banging stopped almost immediately. With the room suddenly quiet, it was almost far too easy to start slipping into unconsciousness. The quiet darkness, the general warmth of the room, the scent of the sweet flowers in the back of the room.

_Why not just give up~_

A tiny voice cooed at you from somewhere. You tried to hone in on it, but it was gone as quickly as it had come.

 _Giving up sounds…_ you thought, feeling the haze in your mind creep ever closer, _kind of…bad, maybe. But it would be so much easier._ You thought about the blood creeping down the sides of your neck. _Maybe I’ll die of blood loss before he gets in,_ you think wistfully.

_But is that really better?_

“Human?” A voice from the other side of the door grabbed your attention. You stiffened as it continued. “If you are injured, I can treat you.”

_Treat you?_

“If you become hungry, I can bring food to you. I can even set it outside of the room if it would make you happy.”

_Food? **Were** you hungry?_

“I will leave the bandages outside as well, if you really are hurt again.”

_Why does he care? Isn’t he the God of Death? Shouldn’t he be wanting to kill you?_

 “I promise that I don’t mean you any harm, really. I am really the only one that even accepts that ‘God’ title. I’ve put it completely behind me. I promise that I won’t do anything to you, especially kill.”

 **_Huh?_ ** _Is that supposed to make sense?_

The voice stopped talking, leaving you to the sinking darkness in your head. The sound it caused had given you something to anchor your mind to, and now that it was gone it was hard to focus on staying conscious.

_Think of something._

_Food._

_Pain._

_Ow actually._

Blood was still seeping out of the back of your head. You focused on it, determined to stay conscious now.

_If I could just manage to move a little…_

Asriel shuffled away from the door dejectedly. The human hadn’t said a word to him. He had messed up somehow. The human had completely shut him out within minutes of waking up.

He made his way to the kitchen, searching through the cabinets for the medical supplies. As he searched, he put some food off to the side until he had a decent pile. He eventually found the medics kit under the sink, pulling it out and blowing a thin film of filth off of the top before placing it next to the food.

The majority of what was in front of him some monster candy, butterscotch pie that had somehow survived the centuries and a bundle of hot dogs. He moved the pie off to the side, not sure if it was even possible to cut the pastry, and scooped the rest of the food into his arms. He didn’t bother to pick up the med kit, mentally using it as an extra excuse to go back to the human’s room. He grabbed a plate and made his way back to the room.

The silence in front of the door was almost stifling, but Asriel made sure to bump the plate into the side of the door, announcing its presence to the human before scuttling back to the kitchen, his mind clouded by worry for the human that refused to speak to him.

_What did I say? What did I do wrong? Do they hate me? They only just met me. Maybe I can change their opinion if I…..I don’t know, bandage them up and stop talking to them? I don’t really want to do that though._

**THEY’LL BE HAPPY WHEN YOU DIE.**

**_SHUT UP._ **


	4. Human, you dun goofed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short, I'm sorry ;__; I don't have a schedule yet either. Still trying to figure out where this story is going and such.

Asriel thumbed roughly at the surface of the med kit, contemplating his next move.

The human was stuck in their room for now. He could feed them for as long as they needed, but the door might actually be too stuck for them to even open it. He didn’t know if he could open the door in a way that wouldn’t make them nervous, but honestly, if it came to that, he would prefer them scared of him rather than starving, unconscious and hurt.

He would give up any chance at a connection to keep this human alive.

He wouldn’t keep them trapped underground with him.

He wouldn’t force them to do anything.

He just has to keep tending to the flowers.

Tend to the human. Tend to the flowers.

He stood up from his spot at the kitchen table.

_I still have to tend to the human._

 

 

You slowly stand up, hands pressed against the bloodied carpet, listening to the sound of the God’s footsteps as he walked away.

He had knocked something against the door, and something, perhaps the smell, called out to you to stand up. You were tired. You were hurt. You were hungry. The God had mentioned food, and treatment, but you were almost certain that you could patch yourself up.

You pressed the pads of your fingertips against the floor, struggling to focus on the contact points they made.

First, stand up.

Second, get the door open and the food inside quickly in case the God came back and decided to let you die of starvation.

Third, get back into the bed and sleep. Maybe your wound would heal naturally, if only a little.

Your knee dragged a furrow in the floor, giving you more stability as you rocked your head upward. Darkness curled persistently at the edges of your vision, but you forced your other leg underneath yourself.

Slowly, painfully, you forced yourself into a kneeling position in front of the door, hands resting against the cool wood. Your hands roamed up the door, searching for the edge, then for the handle. The knob felt icy under your hand, and it crossed your mind that your wound might be infected. Hopefully the God had left some bandages or _something._ You doubted you could treat yourself now though. You could hardly focus on turning the door knob and sitting upright at the same time. Your hand curled as tightly as you could manage around the doorknob…

 

 

Asriel padded quietly down the hall, hugging the wall as he went. The med kit sat in his hands, the majority of the grime rubbed away from the shining white and red surface. He kept as silent as he could manage. If he had given them enough time, even though he knew he had only been in the kitchen for under a minute, the human might have eaten and fallen asleep already. He didn’t want to risk waking them.

He stopped in front of the door, hesitant to put it down and leave. The food was still sitting haphazardly on the plate, so either the human was asleep, the door really was absolutely jammed, or they were refusing to leave the room. A sigh built itself up in his chest, but Asriel forced it back. He would leave them alone until tomorrow. If the food was untouched, he would break the door down, no matter what the human would think of him.

Take care of the flowers. Take care of the human.

He leaned down and set the kit next to the food, hesitating before standing back up when he heard light scratching behind the door.

What the…?

The door gradually creaked open. The human slowly came into view, looking worse for wear.

Their cloths were horridly disheveled, ripped and crumbled and cover in pollen. They were obviously struggling to stay sitting up, bracing themselves against the floor with one hand as their upper body tried to follow the door backwards. Their eyes were glazed over, hazed with pain and concentration on their job. To his horror, he noticed that they sat in a pool of their own blood, which was still streaming down their neck like rain down a leaf.

They looked up at him, and for a moment, Asriel was stuck in an impromptu staring contest.

Recognition crept into their eyes, and the human’s month started to open in shock. They tried slamming the door forward, closing him out again, but it caught on their elbow. They winced and twitched, trying to scuttle backwards. He watched as they careened into the floor, slamming their shoulders into the carpet before going completely still.

……

……

_TEND TO THE HUMAN._

Asriel shot forward into the room, hovering over the human. “Human? Human!? HUMAN?!” he tried desperately to get a response from them.

But nothing happened.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Person


	5. Thoughts To Tend To

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAYYYE LOOK I ACTUALLY DID A GOOD.  
> It's actually posted when I said it would be posted.  
> I'm happy. it feels kind of fillery to me, but I'm still happy.  
> Not sure if you guys are happy with what I'm doing here.

Asriel had moved the human from the floor back to the bed. He had used the first aid kit to do what he could for the back of their head. He had cleared the floor of blood. He had put the food back into the cabinets in the kitchen. He had wandered around outside for a short time before anxiety had pulled him back to the human’s room.

Now he was just flipping through yellowed books about snails as he listened to the human’s breathing.

Asriel had been sitting there for the better part of an hour, and he still fretted over what he could do to help the human. The only human that had ever been even sick around him was Chara, and they had gotten sick on purpose. They wouldn’t have let him try to help in the first place, so he had no clue what he was supposed to do now.

Was he supposed to sit here until the human woke up? Or should he consider it in the sense of ‘a watched pot never boils’?

What was he supposed to do?

Asriel sighed, the book dropping from his hands down to his knees. He looked over his shoulder to gaze down at the human.

They hadn’t moved the slightest bit since he had set them down, and he was unbelievable concerned. They had lost so much blood, and he had only just found them hardly two hours ago.

He had decided to tend to the human as he tended to the flowers, but he wasn’t sure what he could do for them.

The flowers were easy; all they needed to survive was water. Humans needed so much more. They needed attention, food water, first aid.

What could he do now that he had given them what they needed?

Asriel stood up from his spot on their bed. The springs creaked as he moved, and he dropped the snail book down next to their arm. They bounced up slightly when he moved away, moving with the motions of the bed.

Asriel moved out of the room, struggling not to look back over his shoulder as he dragged the door closed behind him. His footsteps echoed softly in the corridor as he made his way back through the house and back to the front door. He opened it and walked out, picking up the watering can that he had settled next to the stairs.

He roamed through the Ruins aimlessly, watering any flowers that he happened to come across. Over the years they had spread from the flower patch and from the Throne Room, spreading their golden petals wherever they could find room. It made his task of caring for the flowers harder, but it gave him a reason to move around the Underground more. He had to search out every crack, every nook and cranny in which the flowers could bloom. Most of the time it required him to fetch water over and over again, whether from the river or from Waterfall. He still struggled to find them all every single time he went out to water them, but it was getting easier with time.

He never touched the flowers unless he absolutely had to. They brought back too much, they allowed him to think about that thing he had become, that he could still become.

He wouldn’t touch the flowers while the human was still around.

He made his way through the Underground, through Snowdin; through Waterfall; through Hotland. All the way up to the castle, and eventually the Throne room.

The flowers there were beginning to wilt. He always put off coming to the Throne room for as long as he could. He didn’t like to be in the castle anymore. The memories it contained always trailed after him, clouding his mind and bringing him dangerously close to falling, but he had to tend to the flowers, and he could feel them calling out to him, begging him silently for the begrudging care that he gave them.

Today they seemed to stretch towards him, beckoning the water from his can.

Asriel watered the plants as quickly as he dared, wincing whenever the petals, leaves and vines brushed up against the hem of his robes.

Echo flowers glowed around the edges of the patch of gold flowers; Asriel wished desperately that they would take over the patch of golden flowers, killing them off while he was gone. They stayed to the side though, more and more of them growing in a way that looked as though they planned to form a glowing blue ring around their duller cousins.

Asriel made sure to water the echo flowers before he went, silently willing them to grow faster, to become more dominant than they already were.

 Asriel didn’t say a thing as he worked. He didn’t hum, didn’t talk out loud to himself. He felt that if the echo flowers picked it up and began to whisper it while he was away from the Throne room, it would somehow encourage the flowers.

When he had finally finished his task, after having to leave the room twice to fetch more water, Asriel practically sprinted out of the castle. He had finished his constant duty. The flowers in the Ruins were watered. The flowers in the Throne room had been tended to.

He didn’t know if he had finished his newest duty though.

Was the human tended to?

He sped through all the levels of the Underground, not bothering to flick the snow from his feet when he had made it back to the Ruins, then back to the house, where he dropped the watering can by the stairs before sitting back in the living room. Leaning back in the chair, he struggled not to walk back to the human’s room. He wanted to leave them be, give them some time to get used to their surroundings. Perhaps they would even grow to see his mother’s room as a safe place for themselves.

He felt the safest in the Ruins, with its stone walls, the red leaves and its hole that peered out of the side of the mountain.

Even on a normal day he would always rush back to the house in the Ruins, preferring the warm walls where his mother had lived to the rooms that smelled of monsters he had never truly met.

Frisk was the only one who really knew about him and his identity. He knew they were gone now, but he wasn’t sure if he felt glad or sad. Glad because now no one would know about his connection to that demon. Sad because now no one was around to remember him and how he had changed. He wasn’t even sure if any of the monsters on the surface knew that he still existed own here.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted them to know about him.

But Asriel was still alive. He was still around to breath, to take care of the few things that still lived in the Underground, and now to take care of the human that had gotten hurt before he had even met them. Something different from what he was used to.

He had gotten used to being the first thing to hurt the humans that fell.

He was glad that it hadn’t been that way this time.

Asriel pressed himself as deeply as he could into his mother’s chair. He wanted to be more like her. Less like his father, less like that creature. He wanted to be the one that healed, not the one that would hurt others just for their own amusement. He knew he was capable of being kind; all monsters were, even if he was a monster that didn’t have a soul. He could at the very least mime kindness, use it as a way to placate the human so that they wouldn’t fear him.

He hoped desperately that they would believe that he was kind, even if he didn’t feel that way.

Tend the flowers. Tend the human.

_Please,_ Asriel thought, screwing his eyes shut as he mentally tried to siphon his mother’s kindness from her chair, from her house, _let me take care of something besides the flowers._


	6. Oh, you're awake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY GUESS WHAT I PROCRASTINATE SO MUCH ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH sorry

You wake up slowly for the second time in as many hours. The bed beneath you is the same as last time, and you hear a door close somewhere nearby.

Memories come back to you slowly. All the blood, the white furry creature, the food, the panic and pain you had felt when you had locked eyes with the monster.

The monster...

Where was it?

You slowly pull yourself up into a sitting position, bracing your arms against the plush mattress for support.

Why hadn't the God killed you yet? Why was it bothering to keep you around?

You looked around the room in a haze, seeing the wet carpet, a plate of food on the bookshelf, a book about...snails...resting next to your foot and an emptied med kit sitting on the floor.

You processed the box for a moment before reaching up to the back of your neck.

Someone had wrapped your wound rather messily, far too loosely as well, as if they were worried about accidentally strangling you. You pulled at the weird knot at the side of your neck and let the bandages fall loosely at your shoulders before tugging them away completely. You fumble with the white strip lightly until you reach a dark, damp spot.

You had still been bleeding when the bandage had been put on. You touch the back of your neck lightly and feel a drying scab, so you must have been out just long enough for the gash to clot.

You pull your hand away with a sigh and drop your gaze back to the kit.

Why had the God bothered to help you? Wasn't he the God of Death? Wasn't he supposed to kill you?

You rub the bandage lightly with your thumbs.

Did he even intend to kill you? What would be the point of healing you over and over again if he was just going to kill you later.

You groan and flop back onto the bed. Why had you judged him so quickly?

You're a jerk.

You recalled slightly hearing a door open as you had woken up. Either the creature had just left, or it had just come back from some other activity...

Did you feel up to going and finding him?

...

Sure.

You sit back up and pull your legs out from under the covers, resting your feet on the carpet by the med kit. You scooped it up and put the bandage back into the case, tucking it into the bookshelf, along with the book from the bed. Standing up wasn’t too hard, but you did feel a little nauseous as you made your way back to the door. You wince as you step down on a wet patch of the carpet; this is where you had collapsed after seeing the furry creature, where you had made a sizable pool blood.

The monster must have cleaned it up somehow, as now all that was left was a damp patch of fabric.

It must have been nightmarish to clean up all that blood. You couldn’t help feeling a twinge of guilt.

Outside, in the hallway, is mostly dark. The only light you can see is coming from down the hall, besides the eerie glow from the windows. You scoot down the hallway slowly, dragging your feet on the floor to search out any obstacles that would take you back to the floor.

You drag yourself down the hall to the light source, peeking around the wall and almost jumping out of your skin when you see the creature lounging in an old, worn down armchair.

He’s sitting perfectly still, so quiet that you could almost mistake him for a statue if he didn’t twitch in his sleep.

 You take a good look at him from your place behind the wall, finally seeing him clearly, outside of the dark shade of your temporary room.

He looks like he would be taller than you if he was standing, and he’s wearing a dark purple robe. White fur covers him from head to toe, even covering his ears, which resemble that of a floppy eared rabbit. His face resembles something that reminds you of a mixture of a deer and a cow, with a tiny twitching nose and an animalistic split lip. Twin sets of dark black, pointed lines come out from underneath his chin and shoot up towards his eyes, looking like paint, or as if he had dyed his fur dark. Small, nubby claws dot each of his fingers, digging lightly into the arms of the chair. He looks utterly peaceful, and extremely exhausted, and you can’t help feeling that twinge of guilt once again.

You can’t help but reflect on your actions. In the time that you had been here, you had practically thrown all of his generosity to the wind just because he had said that he was a God of Death. Everything he had done for you contradicted what he had said. He had healed you over and over again, fed you, cleaned up every mess you had made, and all you had done was thrown a door into his face not once, but twice.

You were such a jerk.

This creature looked like he couldn’t, wouldn’t, do a thing to hurt you. He had been nothing but kind to you, and you had reacted as if everything he did was a way to kill you.

How on earth were you supposed to make up for that?

You watch the creature sleep for a little while longer, listening to his light snores and you try to think of what you could do while he slept.

He had cleaned your room, but the plate and the empty med kit were still in there. Perhaps you could refill the kit, but you had no clue where you would even fin such supplies in this house, and you weren’t even sure if it would be considered polite to just blatantly search his home while he slept. That felt too much like you were attempting to burgle him, no matter the intention. You could wash the plate and put the leftover food away, but you had no clue where to find the kitchen.

There was an open door just behind the being’s chair, but considering the state you were still in, you doubted that you could make it past him without waking him up or tripping over something.

You gently slump down on the wall, watching the person quietly and thinking through your situation.

You couldn’t do anything to help him at the moment without disturbing him or rifling through his home.

You had food that you could eat back in your room, but for whatever reason you didn’t feel any need, or want, to go and get it.

You could sleep again…

You sigh, rubbing at your neck lightly as you lean back against the edge of the wall, settling down across the room from the God of Death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Person, you have no clue how happy it makes me that you're so into this story. Like wow. Thank you <3


	7. I WAGE WAR UPON YOU, YOU ACCURSED PLANTS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whether you know it or not, this really helps him. It makes him happier than he's been in years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary will make more sense later. I guess.

You woke up before the God. You were still exhausted, but somehow, across the room, he was still asleep in his chair, leaning to the side as if he had slipped slightly. You honestly didn’t know how.

You straighten up against the wall, wincing as your wound twinges slightly. You brace yourself against the cool wall and stand up, using your free hand to touch your scar and check for any wet warmth. Finding none, you turn your attention back towards the creature. He’s perfectly still now, not even twitching now, unreasonably still, like he was afraid to move. You watch him a little more closely, willing him to move, to do something, but to no avail. You look off to the sides, taking in the fireplace and the bookshelves, and then let your eyes drift off to the left of the creature. All of your focus is instantly stolen by the large table in the room. More specifically by what is on top of it.

An enormous plant squatted there as a centerpiece, leaves and stems sprouting out in a cloud of green chaos. It had taken over the majority of the tabletop, cascading over the sides like a waterfall.

It was just an innocent, overgrown plant, but something about it felt off. It didn’t look right, and something about it made you nervous, made you not want to move farther into the room now that you had seen it. If the plant was a person, in your mind, it would be the type of person you would see lurking in the shadows of an alleyway; not someone that was obviously dangerous, but had the capability of it, and seemed to want nothing more than to scare you, grinning brightly just outside your line of sight.

You force yourself to edge away from the wall, deeper into the room. The closer you got to the plant, the heavier the air seemed to get, and you try to puzzle it out in your mind. Perhaps it was a poisonous plant? He was a God of Death, maybe he thought it would be a silly joke to have in his house. A deadly house plant for the God of Death.

Urk. No.

Now is not the time to be thinking about that sort of thing.

You edge closer to the plant, not entirely sure about what you plan to do. As you get closer, the vines seem to reach out towards you, though that can only be in your mind. The menacing feeling only seems to get stronger as you approach as well, and halfway across the room you actually begin to sweat.

_How can the plant make me feel like this? It’s absurd!_

You squat down next to the curling vines on the floor, and rub your hand hesitantly against leaves.

_I can trim this, right? Like, prune it or something._

You grip on of the leaves between your fingers, then, after a quick moment of hesitation, rip it off. The entire plant shakes at your action, as if it were stiffening out of shock from the sudden assault. You stand up, gaining confidence, and walk closer to the table. You reach out, fighting against the poisonous aura of the plant and grab one of the stems.

For a moment, you stand perfectly still, unsure if you are actually allowed to do this, if you should keep pulling at the plant.

_It should be alright,_ you reason, _this sort of thing has to happen eventually for it to stay healthy…Plants can grow bigger after being clipped or whatever, right?_

_Right._

The green stem in your hand is shaking now, and are not sure if it’s your own hand or the plant itself.

_**nO** _

_On three,_ you think.

_One._

**_StOP_ **

_Two._

**_If YoU Do THIs-_ **

_Three._

You rip the plant stem out of the earth in an almost savage manner, practically flinging it behind you in your urge to tame the house plant. Small roots go trailing after the end of the stem, dropping dirt all over the table. **That** felt strangely satisfying. It was like you had just mortally wounded a hated foe, as morbid as that actually sounded in your head. You drape the vine over your arm, and then reach out to grab yet another stem.

_One down..._

You couldn't hear the protests coming from a creature you had never known existed.

 

\-------------

 

_Asriel paced from side to side in his dreams, waiting for the vines above him to descend and suffocate him, as they did every time he slept._

_He was trapped snuggly in a room built of nothing but thorns, flowers and plant stems._

_He knew that if he bothered trying to touch them, the thorns would sprout outward and rip the pads on his hands to shreds. If he tried to dig his way out of the room, the roots would come and dig their way into his throat, leaving him in agony until he was mercifully dusted and woken up. It was an agonizing dream that he dealt with every night, but he had gotten used to it over the years. He had learned that all he had to do was wait for himself to wake up. To do that, the vines above him would have to come crashing to the ground, crushing him into a powdery cloud of ash that would fertilize the ground that they grew from._

_At first the dream had been borderline nightmarish, but seeing as it had occurred every night since Frisk had left the Underground, he knew what would happen and just had to wait to be allowed to wake up._

_He had worked on getting rid of the dream for decades, but he had yet to figure out what to do about it. There was a book about dreams that he had found at the Dump, but all the methods that the book had suggested had failed to help him._

_He just had to wait it out._

_..._

_..._

_It felt like hours had passed, though it felt like that every night. He knew that he would wake up straight-backed and sore, having tensed his muscles from the terror of the dream._

_…_

_…_

_A flower suddenly drifted by his nose, and Asriel immediately stiffened, waiting for the phantom pain that would send him back to the Underground._

_But nothing happened._

_Asriel looked up, expecting to see a wall of plant life coming down at him from the heavens, but…_

_A small hole was beginning to open up above him, slowly growing in size until it was large enough for him to be able to fit into it, if he had the ability to fly._

_From the looks of the hole, if he stayed where he was, he wouldn’t be crushed by the plants when they finally fell again._

_He didn’t have to worry about experiencing death this night._

_What had changed?_

_Asriel knew he wouldn’t be able to figure it out until he woke up. Stars, the book probably wouldn’t even have an explanation for this._

_For now, all he knew for certain was that he didn’t have to worry tonight. He didn’t have to be afraid. He didn’t have to be scared._

_Asriel sat down on the claylike earth, making sure to stay directly beneath the hole._

_For now, he could just relax until he woke up naturally._

_He didn’t have to worry about the plants._

_Asriel picked up the flower head that had floated by him, rubbing lightly at the yellow petals, thought slowly blooming in his mind._

_He tentatively took hold of one of the petals with his nubby claws, then broke it away, quickly followed by a second petal, muttering as he went,_ I am safe, I’m not in danger, I am safe, I’m not in danger…

I am safe, _as the last petal fell away._

I don't have to worry tonight...

I can relax tonight...

Why?

What changed?

 

\-------------

 

By this point you had made your way throughout the entire house, finding plant after plant in almost every crevice imaginable. Each plant that you had managed to find was severely overgrown, as if the creature had felt no need, or desire, to touch them and care for them properly, besides watering them of course. Hence the intense overgrowth that threatened to take control of the house.

It was almost absurd how many plants he had. There were plants in the living room, the bedrooms, the bathroom, the hallways, and even in the kitchen. There had even been plants underneath the sink; they were dark, tiny things, menacing enough to make you want to leave alone completely.

They stank of death.

You didn’t touch them. They didn’t look like they needed any trimming anyway.

The house itself looked rather pleasant, even if it was just a bit musty. You were sure the air would have been much worse if it wasn’t for the plants, so you were grateful for that. The house was decently furnished, even if most of the furniture didn’t match. Small paintings decorated the walls, and tinier drawings were littered across the front of the fridge, making you feel as if a family had once lived here. The house felt sad, yet well-loved at the same time.

Perhaps the God of Death had once had a family here.

Where had they gone?

It wasn’t really your place to question what had happened in his life, but you couldn’t help feeling curious.

Were they going to come back one day? Did he miss them?

_Stop,_ you have to think to yourself, _he helped you, give him his space. You really haven’t even talked to him yet, stop trying to dissect his life. Just deal with the freaking plants._

By the end of your plant-based massacre there was an enormous pile of plant trimmings sitting by the front door. Throughout your entire escapade of the house, you had been dropping them there, making it easier for you to get rid of them later.

Where were you supposed to put them? Did this God have a trashcan? Garbage removal?

 You’d ask him when he woke up.

For the moment though, there was a pile of dead plant waste that reached up to your waist sitting by the front door. You weren’t able to find any bags to put it in, so they were just sitting against the floor. A small pail of dirt was also sitting next to them, having been disturbed out of each of the pots throughout the hour you had spent neatening the plants.

It had occurred to you that maybe he hadn’t trimmed any of his plants because he had _wanted_ them to take over his house, but…

Nah.

You made your way back to the living room, brushing your hands as you went. Your fingers smelt of dirt and plant sap, but that would be easy enough to remedy. You can’t help but feel proud of the work you’ve done. All the plants in the God’s house have been trimmed back down. Even an odd cactus in your previous room. For whatever reason, all of the needles were pointing straight towards the door. You had found an old, rusty nail clipper in the bathroom and had sliced all the tips from the plant.

You probably weren’t supposed to do that, and you had probably killed all the plants, but it was done now. You didn’t know a thing about gardening, let alone taking care of houseplants, but you are pretty sure they wouldn’t be dead by tomorrow.

As you approached the end of the hallway, a loud snore rocked the house. Looking through the doorway, you saw that the furry creature had completely loosened up since you had last looked at him. Instead of holding himself as stiff as a board, he was almost completely thrown off to the side, practically falling over the side of the chair. He had lost all the tension in his face, and snored loudly as his fingers curled and unfurled gently. Honestly, it reminded you of a dog having a pleasant dream.

He honestly looked like the perfect representation of pure and utter relaxation.

Great, now you’re fighting an urge to pet him.

You can’t help but stare at him as he passing by, heading towards the kitchen to wash the sticky brown goop from your hands.

Maybe trimming his plants was the last thing that he would have wanted, but you hoped he wouldn’t be angry at you when he woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WOULD LOVE TO START WRITING CHAPTERS WITH ACTUAL DIALOGUE IN THEM SOON PLS I'M DRAGGING THIS OUT WAAAAAAAAY TO LONG   
> okay   
> anybody happen to catch that reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally subtle pun I put in there? ;0


	8. THANK YOU HUMAN, WHOEVER YOU ARE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I can't help but notice that Asriel asks WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too many questions.  
> The only question he can't seem to ask is your name -_-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EARLY UDATE MWAHAHAHA WHAT DID I SAY >:D  
> okay this is posted early because I've got like, three random shifts at work for the next couple of days, and I honestly won't be able to work on this too much. This is sort of a small chapter, sorry, but I'm going post this one today and another small chapter on TUESDAY so that my schedule is kinda sorta the same. :/ Such is life I guess...  
> This chapter is shorter than I like, and I might end up combining it with the next chapter later on, just as aa heads up. I feel like it probably will happen.  
> Anywho, enjoy :D

When Asriel woke up, he was so twisted around in the chair that he was practically looking at the back of it. His ears were drooped over the top and his arms were twisted over his torso. He slowly unwound himself, sitting upright in the chair before stretching.

As he stretched, he sniffed the air gently, simply out of habit. Asriel froze.

The air stank of cut leaves and sap and dirt.

Asriel shot up out of his chair, looking around frantically. Had he destroyed plant in his sleep? Was that even possible?

A quick look around the room gave him of you of the plan on the table. The vines that had previously been cascading over the table were gone, giving the table and almost bare look. The plant looked almost small now.

He stared at it for a moment, straightening up slowly. He scrubbed at his face roughly for a moment. Was he still dreaming?

After a moment, he scrambled over to the table stopping just short of the edge. He reached out slowly, almost hesitantly, before putting his hand down in the middle of the plant. The stem spent underneath the weight, and Asriel immediately stopped, pulling his hand back quickly. He looked at the table around the plant and, seeing sprays of dirt on the table, darted out the room intending to check on the human.

He immediately tripped on an enormous pile of green, slamming into the floor with a breathy “oof”. He turned to look at it taking in the amount of plant life. It was squatting next to the doorway, hidden in the dark like a dead body. For a brief moment all he could do was stare at the pile. What in the Underground…? He shuffled around, plunging his paw into the pile of plants. His claws sunk into the pile of sheared off leaves and he ripped his hand back, cradling it to his chest.

What the…WHY?

He reached out and scooped the majority of the pile into his arms hesitantly. Despite filling up his arms as much as he could, there was still an enormous pile on the floor.

Was all of this from the plants around the house?

Why are there cactus needles on the floor?

Quiet rush of water suddenly sounded from the direction of the living room, and Asriel immediately dropped his pile back on the floor, tripping over it in his haste to get back into the room. He scurried through the living room and into the kitchen, slamming into the kitchen table before he had a chance to catch himself.

The human by the sink whipped around, spraying water all over the floor in their panic. They locked eyes with him and practically leapt on the countertop, scrambling backwards. Asriel almost panicked as well.

Why were they out of bed? Didn’t they still need their rest? They were still healing weren’t they?

Are their hands covered in sap?

Asriel pulled himself off of the corner of the kitchen table, straightening slowly so as to not scare the human again. They were still pressed up against the sink, one hand raised as if to fend him off.

He approached carefully, sliding himself slowly across the floor until he was directly in front of the human. They stared up at him expectantly, almost fearfully, than jolted slightly as he began to raise his hands up to their arm. He gently cupped their hand, turning it so that he could look directly at their palm.

It was covered with plant sap, bits of cactus needles, and grass stains, obvious evidence of what they had been doing since he had fallen asleep. They had done the thing that he could not bring himself to do…

Asriel’s eyes shot open (when had they closed?!). He had pressed the human’s hand to his nose, their fingers practically in his sinuses from how he was holding them. The human them self had turned a shocking color of red, practically the color of ketchup. He immediately release their hand and flew backwards, stammering in a panic, “I-I’m sorry, I was just so happy and…and…and-“ Asriel could feel the embarrassment creeping onto his face, his fair practically standing on end in sheer panic. The human head turns that their side was facing him, their hands cupped together underneath their chin. They were looking him up and down, scrutinizing every detail as if they were making sure he hadn’t meant anything by holding their hand.

**YOU SCREWED UP.**

Asriel’s for began to lower in shame, his ears pressing down against the sides of his head and neck like that of an actual rabbit’s ears. What had he been doing is grabbing your hand like that? He was supposed to be giving your space, giving you time to heal…

He was supposed to tend to you, not freak you out.

Whether you knew it or not, you had really helped him by disposing of the overgrown weeds that he had to take care of, but he practically forced himself to take care of. That that stupid creature wouldn’t let him control.

That thing didn’t control you. Whether you knew it or not, you had just beaten down a beast that Asriel had been fighting for decades.

**OH REALLY? DID THEY REALLY?** **I’M STILL HERE, AREN’T I?**

**_But you didn’t tell me last night, did you?_ **

The creature went silent, just as the human began to speak.

“I…uh…well,” Their voice was too soft, and Asriel struggled to pick it up,” I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind what?” Asriel asked, then almost immediately regretted it as the human flinched yet again.

“I took care of your plants for you.”

They shrieked as Asriel grab their shoulders, practically lifting them off the ground in his disbelief. “MIND IT?!”

The human instantly began thrashing around, kicking and twisting in his hands, frantic to be released by the seemingly enraged creature. Asriel didn’t seem to notice though, and began to physically shaking you, rolling your head back and forth.

“ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?!? YOU HAVE NO CLUE HOW HAPPY THAT MAKES ME!!!!!!!”

Human froze in his hands, giving him a sidelong glance he continued.

“YOU DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH TROUBLE THOSE THINGS HAVE BEEN GIVING ME. I SERIOUSLY DON’T THINK I COULD EVER EXPLAIN TO YOU HOW MUCH THIS MEAN TO ME.”

Asriel swept the startled human up into his arms, giving them the furriest bear hug of their life. For a moment the human froze yet again, then slowly put their arms up against his back. They gave him a hesitant pat on his shoulder before attempting to move away. He let them go, clapping his hands together in front of his chest in immeasurable joy, his smile unreasonably large. The human stared at him as if he had been acting insane, though he had to admit that being hugged by a stranger was probably the last thing that they had expected.

“So, you’re not mad that I snipped apart all your plants?”

“Why in the name of Asgore would I be upset?”

The human leaned back against the sink again, this time crossing her arms across their chest, a slightly concerned look on their face.

“Because I have _literally_ the absolute worst green thumb on the planet. It will honestly be a miracle if those plants are still alive a week from now.” They watched him carefully, judging his reaction to what they probably _assumed_ was a grim bit of knowledge to share with him.

Asriel rubbed his cheeks gently with his paws, willing the muscles in his face to soften slightly so that he could stop smiling at least a little. “Honestly, that’s the best news I’ve heard in years.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of thee that didn't catch it in the last chapter, this was the subtle pun that I managed to do by accident:  
> Asriel picked up the FLOWER head that had floated by him, rubbing lightly at the yellow petals, thought slowly BLOOMING in his mind.  
> ...  
> ...  
> ...  
> ...  
> I TRIED OKAY DON'T JUDGE I'M NOT GOOD AT WORDPLAY D':


	9. Meh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS I'M SORRY I'M LATE D':  
> Wanna know why I'm late?  
> ...  
> ...  
> ...  
> You know how Memorial Day was last Monday? Well, I was marching in the parade with my school band, and the uniform they had the color guard wearing was not the best protection wise. It was full-blast BURNING HOT SUN for the entire parade, and I ended up getting burned so badly that, yesterday, I actually had to go to the FREAKING HOSPITAL for medical assistance.  
> The doctor I was with actually straight up told me that I was THIS close to having sun poisoning. That's like a FREAKING FATAL ailment right?!?!? I...I just....I don't know, it was scary.  
> THANK GOD FOR OVER-ATTENTIVE PARENTS AND THEIR MASSIVE CONTAINERS OF WATER.  
> So, basically, this is late because, once again, I needed to go to the hospital.  
> -_-  
> *slams face into the ground in a bow-like fashion*  
> PLEASE FORGIVE ME I'M SO SORRY FOR BEING LATE

If you had to describe this guy, how would you describe him?

Honestly…he really wasn’t all that bad.

After your initial shock and getting over his unfortunate name, he was very easy to get along with. In all honesty, he was almost too eager to please. He had offered you food, books, and abnormal amount of shoes, and just about every other thing he could offer. He was too nice for his own good, and it was hard not to like him.

Not wanting to take advantage of him and his generosity more than you had to (he had kept you alive from what you could tell, what with the bandages and food), you had turned down almost everything, instead offering to help get rid of the plant pile you had created in his hallway.

He had been reluctant at first to let you help, vocally worrying about your injury, you had insisted that it wouldn’t bother you while walking with a pile of trash in your arms. Hesitantly, he allowed you to go.

Now you were walking through the weirdest environment you could have found. Asriel, the weird goat thing, had first lead you through what looked like cracking castle hallways, a perpetually snowing town, a soggy marshland, and now through what you imagined could easily be the heart of the volcano. He had guided you around pools and rivers of lava, choosing one that seemed unreasonably far away for just getting rid of some dead plants.

He had insisted though, even though you knew be easier just to drop it in the first patch of lava you had seen.

He was helping you though, and you really didn’t have any reason to complain. You didn’t know how long he had been taking care of you, for all you know it could have been weeks, so this was the least you could do for him. You had slammed the door in his face, assumed he was there to kill you, and probably given him a mild heart attack with all the problems you had caused. Besides, a walk wouldn’t hurt you.

“Are you sure that you are alright?” Asriel asked for what seemed like the hundredth time,” I can carry you back to the Ruins, if you would rather.”

“Really, I’m fine.”

Actually, you could feel the heat baking your face like a cake, and sweat was pouring down your face like a small waterfall. You could practically feel the moisture being leeched from your body. Your back and feet hurt, and you felt as though the intense heat would make you pass out, but you reasoned that it had to be just as bad, if not worse, for the poor guy. As far as you could tell, he was covered ear to foot in fur that a Samoyed would be jealous of. He was even wearing a ROBE of all things. Again, that couldn’t be easy in this heat.

If he could get through this with all of that working against him, you would get through this no problem. You were DETERMINED to get through this. You would cool down as soon as you got back to that marsh anyway. This was only a temporary inconvenience.

YOU WOULD NOT GIVE INTO THIS HEAT. YOU COULD OUTLAST THIS FOR _YEARS_ IF YOU HAD TO.

Wow, the lava makes things look a lot more… _swirly_ …then you would have thought.

Huh.

\------------

Asriel felt terrible for you. After he had tackled you, you had exchanged names and he had offered to get rid of the plants himself, after offering you every hospitality he could think of, of course. He was supposed to take care of you.

But here he was, leading you through one of the most dangerous zones in the Underground and letting you carry all those vines.

He had let you deal with the freezing cold of Snowdin.

He had that you get your shoes wet at Waterfall.

And now he was leading you through Hotland, completely bare to the elements, and going as far back as he possibly could to get rid of the evil that he felt practically radiating from the foes you had vanquished.

He knew you weren’t aware of how much it meant when you had clipped the plants. He hadn’t elaborated on it after he had told you how happy he was that you had done in the first place. He hadn’t expected that from you; heck, he wasn’t even expecting you to wake up for another week, at the very least.

But here you were, treating him with kindness he didn’t think he deserved.

Asriel mentally smacked himself over and over again, much the glee of his inner demon, searching desperately for a way to thank you.

He came up empty.

Asriel looked over to you for a moment, and you looked up at him, smiling gently. He smiled back before looking back at the ground, watching for any cracks that would give telltale signs of any lava wanting to poke through the surface, like a sadistic child waiting to burn the two of you.

You were so much smaller than him, it was almost unreal. He hadn’t really ever thought about his height before, or how he would look compared to other people, but you were downright tiny compared to himself. Asriel thought he could take some punishment; he might be able to handle a little lava if he needed to, but you…

“Are you sure that you are alright? I can carry you back to the Ruins, if you would rather.”

“Really, I’m fine.”

The two of you lapsed back into a comfortable silence, and Asriel focused on his task of guiding you through Hotland without injury.

As he walked away from the pool of law that in which they burned, tendrils of acrid smoke curling from their poisonous vines. The demon was definitely more… _moody_ per se, then normal. He hadn’t verbally lashed out at Asriel for the plant genocide that he had allowed to happen while he slept, but he could feel the emotions coming at him from the darkest corners of his mind. If anything, Asriel had to think that maybe it was lashing out against the pain its kin had “felt”. In any case, there was nothing that could be done about it now. The plants were dealt with, both the living and the dead, and Asriel couldn’t help but feel like he had some sort of _weight_ lifted from his shoulders.

Your arrival had gone better than he could have ever imagined, let alone hoped for. You had done so much for him in the…has it really only been a couple of HOURS?!

You had been friendly with him.

You had been helpful, despite the pain he was sure you were going through.

Whether you knew it or not, you had protected him from the things he had to deal with every day of his life.

You had given him something to take care of. Though, now that he was allowing himself a moment to think about it, he hadn’t been doing a very good job of that. He was letting you walk through HOTLAND for Pete’s sake, while you were still recovering no less! He felt horrible that he hadn’t pressed you to try those boots in the closet. They would have protected you better against th—

*thump*

Asriel looked over his shoulder for a moment, then shot back around, almost throwing himself to the ground in his haste to turn back around. He stared almost blankly for a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened, what you were doing…

…

“AH!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, here's the deal.  
> I don't have any idea where to go with this fic now. This was literally as far as I had it planned.  
> Any ideas at what you'd like? :3  
> Honestly, until I have a clear idea of what I want(need) to happen, the next couple of chapters will be kinda filler-with-plot-ie.  
> Again, any ideas at what you'd like? :3
> 
>  
> 
> COMMENTS FUEL ME AND GIVE ME POWER


	10. I'm sorry, please don't be mad at me

Hi guys....  
I'm really sorry, but as I said in my last post, I don't know where I'm going with this. I literally have no clue. I was writing this week's chapter, and I honestly couldn't finish it because I didn't know how I wanted it to end.  
I just need a little time to figure out what's gonna happen next between you and Asriel, how you'll bond with each other, what you guys are ACTUALLY GONNA DO BESIDES HELPING WITH CHORES AND STUFF. It also doesn't help that the next week is my school's finals week, so I'm busy studying whenever I get the chance.  
So, I'm going on a VERY short hiatus. AT THE MOST, two weeks. At the least, maybe like three days -_- depends on how easily/quickly I can get all this sorted out.  
To those of you that are actually into this story, and actually like to see when I post, I'M REALLY SORRY. I honestly don't mean to cliffhanger you in any way. I just need a path for this story.  
Please forgive me, I'm sorry


	11. What's this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got about 7ish chapters planned out now, and this fic STILL isn't finished. You guys might be here for awhile.  
> Sorry if the chapter is short to you :'[

You had collapsed from the heat of the lava in Hotland, and if he hadn’t heard you fall over he probably would have never known. You had crumpled so suddenly that at first he wasn’t sure what you were doing. You were curled face first over one of your arms, like you had tried to catch yourself as you fell, fingers limp against the ground. Small bits of your hair had landed in some of the cracks in the ground and were curling away from the heat reproachfully, thin tendrils of smoke already beginning to form.

“AH!”

Asriel bent and scooped you up bridal style, scurrying through Hotlands as fast as he could. Small curls of smoke curled up and away from the fur on his toes as he ran, the monster not even bothering to search out the small streaks of lava anymore. He dashed over the border of Hotland into Waterfall, pointing himself directly at the first bit of water bigger than a puddle. He dashed up to the shore line and tipped forward as he stopped too quickly.

Asriel practically dumped you into the lake in his panic, falling in after you with an enormous _SLOSH_ as the water sucked him in. His head popped out of the water as he thrashed around viciously, spraying water everywhere _,_ including you. You had landed just on the lip of the shore, your head resting more on the land than in the water.

Water lapped around the base of your head as Asriel made his way back to you, rippling the disturbed water as he wadded to the shore. When he reached you, he gently picked you up under your shoulders, wincing as your head rolled back, and pulled you towards him. He wrapped his arms around your torso as firmly as he comfortably could, and slowly began to sink back into the water, until your shoulders were submerged in the water, your clothes beginning to float around you in the current.

_‘Should I put them in all the way? Is that safe?’_ Asriel opted to stay where he was for the moment, to cool you down before taking you back out of the water, and settled down to wait. He shuffled around under the water, searching for a decently large rock to sit on as he waited for you to wake up.

Finding one, the goat monster sat down, immediately shifting you around in his arms to keep your head above the water. His own mouth dipped below the water slightly, but as his nose was clear above the water, Asriel made no move to lift his head above the water.

As he sat on the rock, listening to the sounds of the water moving past him, Asriel inspected you shyly. Your skin was pink now, probably from the scalding heat, and the edges of your hair were blackened now, but otherwise you seemed fine. There were some burns on your shirt as well, but the water had shut down any danger them may have brought with them.

As he looked you over, Asriel noticed the collar of your shirt move away from your neck, and immediately shot his eyes away, the skin of his ears flushing in embarrassment. As he looked away though, something glinted at him gently.

A thin silver chain drifted into view, showing off a small circle locket that struggled to float to the surface. It was extremely plain at first, a simple circle on a chain, but there were small letters carved into the surface.

FTSPUAMA ** _A_**

_‘What are these?’_ Asriel wondered, taking the locket for a moment and rubbing the scratches gently.

A shower of water had him shooting his hand back as you thrashed back into consciousness. You had woken up while he was distracted by your necklace.

You thrashed in the water, looking as though you were assuming the worst as Asriel struggled to keep you from throwing yourself into the faster currents deeper in, wrapping his arms around your torso in a bear-hug.

“Wait, wait!” He shrieked, standing up from the rock, lifting you almost completely out of the water, “It’s okay, you’re okay!”

It took a moment for you to respond, still thrashing like a mouse caught by a cat, but when you realized you were out of the water, you calmed down, falling limp against him. When you stopped struggling, Asriel took it as a sign that he could walk back to shore. He shifted his arms to pick you up by the waist, and you wiggled as he dug his nubby claws into your sides and lifted you up. Despite the fact that he wasn’t much bigger than you, Asriel set you on his shoulder and began to walk to the shore. For now, he didn’t trust your legs to be able to support you, especially in the random currents of Waterfall. You had just collapsed in Hotland, and had come close to being burned, he wasn’t going to have you fall and be swept away by the undercurrents.

**LET THEM DROWN….MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER……..**

The voice was much weaker now.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

You had actually woken up rather calmly, the water soothing on your slightly blistered skin. You would have stayed calm had you not seen Asriel with your locket.

_‘HE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO…!’_

You reacted in the fastest way you could think of, thrashing and pulling the chain back into your shirt, throwing waves of water away from you as you tried to push away from the fluffy creature.

“Wait, wait! It’s okay!” He squealed behind you, wrapping his arms around you. You continued to put up a struggle for a moment, then purposely fell limp, not wanting to worry him any further. You couldn’t keep yourself from wiggling as he picked you up though, his claws tickling your sides. He set you down on his shoulder, keeping you upright by bracing his hand against your shoulder.

You twisted your arms around Asriel's horns, trying to keep from falling again. His horns creaked slightly, and both of you winced at the sound. You pulled your arms back, using one to hold on to the base of his horn gently. You used your other hand to tuck the chain back into your shirt.

The two of you wadded onshore, water dripping off your clothes and hair. Asriel didn't stop on the shore to put you down though. He kept walking, headed back up towards Hotland, his robes shuffling and sticking to his clumping fur.

"How did we get to Waterfall?" You asked, finally realizing where you were.

"I was careless and you overheated. You collapsed and I had to carry you here to cool you off."

"Then why are we going back to Hotland?"

"We're both soaked," Asriel hummed gently, putting his other hand on your knee, keeping you from shifting and losing your balance, "if we try to walk through Snowdin like this, you'll definitely get sick. We'll just go to the border where it's warmer so you can dry off."

"What about you?"

"I have fur, I'll be fine."

The two of you went quiet, and after a moment of walking you relaxed into Asriel's shoulder, setting your cheek just behind his horns.

"You know, you can put me down, I can walk."

"I'd feel better if you'd just let me carry you. I don't want you to fall over again."

"Yea, I do a lot of that don't I."

Asriel let out a tiny snort, but kept quiet as the two of you trawled through a patch of echo flowers. They murmured at you gently, but you were too high up to hear them.

"Hey, Asriel?" You started when you left the patch.

"Hm?"

"Why did you save me in the first place?"

He looked up at you from the corner of his eye, "What do you mean?"

"I mean the flower patch. Why didn't you just leave me to die? You didn't know me at all, I'm a total stranger."

Asriel paused for a moment, and you looked down at him curiously. "Asriel? What is it?"

"I saved you for personal reasons." Asriel said quietly, turning his head to look up at you.

You made a face at him, then used a hand to tug at his ear, "C'mon, tell me."

He flicked his ear, trying to drag it out of your fingers, "Quit it, it doesn't matter right now."

"That just makes me think that you keep saving me for no reason." You gave him his ear back, bringing your hand back up to his horns as you pouted. You started to pet at the top of his head, whining, "C'mooooooooooooooooon."

"Nooo." Asriel craned his neck to get away, "I'll tell you later."

You practically flung yourself backwards, making Asriel squeal in fright as you draped yourself over his back. He clutched at your legs, grabbing them to keep you from spilling over his shoulder and onto the ground again. "Tell me or I'll make myself fall again."

"OKAY, OKAY, GET BACK UP! QUICK, QUICK!"


	12. Chapter 12

GUYS IM SORRY I MESSED UP I WONT BE ABLE TO POST AGAIN FOR A LITTLE WHILE. I PROMISE THE STORY ISNT OVER I'LL START POSTING AGAIN WHEN I COME BACK. I'LL EXPLAIN MYSELF WHEN I GET BACK TOO.


	13. New Times, No Explanations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, I'm baaaaack.  
> If you're wondering about where I've been (you probably don't but whatever, skip the notes if you don't care), look up Cub Creek Science Camp.  
> Its a spectacular summer camp that I go to every year. It has tons of fun courses you can take, its own ropes course, and a lot of animals you would never see otherwise. They have a camel, zebus, kinkajous, cats, dogs, pacas, cavies, birds, wallabies, and a heck ton more. ITS LITERALLY THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD IN MY OPINION.  
> The only problem is that they don't allow electronics of any kind so that you can focus on having fun and being around other people. They do have a computer room where you can go to email your family and such, but the line is horrible and its only open for about an hour each day.  
> BUT THIS CAMP IS GREAT CHECK IT OUT.  
> Its stationed in St. Louis, Missouri (no, its not MISSOURiably stop don't make that joke I don't find it funny, even if it is a pun HUUUUUUUUUSH)   
> I stayed there for a two-week session, it was great.  
> Also, sorry DEV for getting your hopes up.

“I saved you for only one reason really. If I saved you, it would be the first time I’ve ever tried to help anybody in a long, long time. I always made things worse for humans coming down here. I would always attack them immediately; make them more afraid of what was to come.  
“When I saw you lying in the flowers, I decided to stop. I, personally, didn’t want to hurt humans anymore. Helping you would be my first chance at changing my ways. Whether or not you turned out to be a killer, I wanted to do something that was actually meaningful.  
“Before you came down here, the only responsibility I had was to take care of the golden flowers in the Throne Room and in the Ruins. More than once I considered abandoning that job and coming up to the Surface, but…my reason for going there died a long time ago.  
“I know that you probably want to go home…but you being here, even if it’s only been a couple of hours at most, has really helped me. I’m not ready to tell you how it’s help me, that’s just too much for me to tell you right now, but I hope that you can stay here, even if it’s only for a little while. You’re free to go home whenever you want…I would never keep you from going home.  
“But…do you mind staying for a little while?”  
“…”

 

Three weeks later, after traveling through the entire Underground over and over again with your friend, you had finally convinced Asriel to let you help out with his ‘chores’. He had nervously handed you a small pair of scissors and a rusting watering can. He had given you a motherly speech about not rushing around with the scissors (they were a the type a child in preschool would be given, and had a plastic sheath that you could put them in and out of) and to be wary of tetanus since he didn’t have any shots or things that could protect you. Before giving you the can though, the goat monster had covered your hands with a thick pair of old leather gloves.   
He had reasoned that his fur had kept him from getting any cuts on his hands, so the gloves would keep you safe.  
The dude was a bit of a worry wart, but it was sweet of him to care so much. So, without much pouting on your end, you had piled all the gear into a wheelbarrow and made your way up to the Throne Room.  
You were sitting in the Throne Room, weeding the garden surrounding the King’s old throne. The extraordinarily dull scissors had proven to be quite useless against the tough plants of the Underground, so you had thrown them off to the side. Instead you just pulled the plants up and out of the ground. You had taken the gloves off and put the watering can over by the door, making your job easier. It had been hard to grip the small plants with the enormous gloves on.   
You had almost finished, and had a pile of browning weeds sitting just outside the circle of echo flowers that had kept you company. You had been utterly silent throughout the work, listening carefully to the quiet murmurs, not wanting to corrupt them with your own voice. It was almost impossible to pick out the words, but it was still soothing to listen to. It made the Underground feel less…empty.  
During your time here, it was hard not to notice how devoid of life the Underground was. Sure, it had the plants, the trees, stupid weeds that seemed to embed themselves in the rocks in order to survive, but other than that, there was no one around. The only living creature down here was Asriel, as far as you could tell. There was no one around for him to get to know, to be friends with, and to look over the Underground with him.  
Asriel was alone…  
“Well, not anymore.” You think fervently to yourself, shaking the dirt off of your hands, touching the small locket around your neck. You itched at the scratches unconsciously. “I’m here now. They were here. That has to be better than nothing.”   
You begin to finish up by filling in the holes the weeds had left in the ground as best as you could. You considered the garden to be actually quite beautiful, and didn’t want to leave empty pockets littering its yellow splendor.  
You worked your way back towards the door through the flowers, pausing at that one echo flower that had caught your attention almost as soon as you had entered the room. It had a louder, clearer voice than the other blossoms, whispering,  
‘…your best friend………….your best friend……”  
You take a moment to smile at it gently and touch your fingertips to its neon blue petals softly before standing up.  
“I know.”  
You take your leave, piling the dead weeds into the wheelbarrow.

 

Asriel paced around his mother’s home warily, edging around, cleaning up whatever dirt or trash he could find. Which left him with basically nothing to do. In the three weeks that you had been here, whenever he had gone back up to Hotland, Asriel had come close to flat-out begging you to stay at the house. You had given into his wishes easily, but that didn’t me that you hadn’t kept yourself busy. Over time, you had managed to clean up the entire house, throwing away anything that had no purpose, dusting away old cobwebs, cleaning away the dirt that fell out of the plant pots and constantly trimming the needles on the cactus. Neither of you really knew if you were actually supposed to do that to a cactus, but the length and degree of sharpness to the needles had frightened you. Especially since they always seem to be pointed at you, or the bed you slept in.  
So, every couple of days you would take a pair of (sharp GASP) scissors to the plant and shuck them away.  
You were unreasonably meticulous, and the house was cleaner than it had been when he had moved in, but again, that left him with nothing to do.  
He meandered through the entire house, skirting around the plants that dotted the house. He couldn’t help feeling nervous, despite the certain lack of nightmares he had been having ever since you had cut them all down.  
Finally, resigning himself to the pure boredom, Asriel left the house, backing out of the hall way and closing the door before he turned around…  
and stepped down hard on a patch of leaves that had been swept out onto the path.  
Asriel flinched so hard that he tumbled back onto the door, crashing into it and sliding down to the stone pathway. He waited for the backlash of his mistake, of his carelessness to be mindful of his old kin, expecting the fire that always came from the back of his mind.  
But it never came.


	14. Sanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is FAR too short for my liking, especially given how long I've been gone, but lately I've been rereading my fic, and I have to say that I'm not too happy about it. I'm going back and rewriting it in a way that I think I can respect. The story will be the same, but I will be expanding the topics a little, making the chapters better.

Asriel was still sitting on the ground when you rattled your way to the house, the wheelbarrow jumping against any and all rocks it came across. He was curled up like a turtle on the ground, eyes burning a hole into a simple leaf. He had his paws curled up under his chin, supporting his head as he stared.  
You stopped next to him, setting the wheelbarrow down to look over it at him. "Um..."  
He didn't look up at you. "Hi."  
"What's up?"  
"Nothing...nothing much...just...just staring at this...this..."  
"Okay?"  
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. You can just go around me if...if you're trying to get to the house I guess...I'm just gonna...stick here for a while." He shuffled forward a little bit, giving you enough room to go behind him on the path.  
"Alright then..." You picked up your equipment. "Can I get you anything?"  
"Nah, I think...I think I'm... I'm actually OKAY." Asriel shot up like a piston, his eyes jittering in excitement. "I'M GOING TO BE OKAY!"  
You shied back slightly as he threw his hands in the air, his ears flapping from momentum. "I'M OKAY FOR ONCE!"  
"Wha??"

You shot back as he suddenly picked up your wheelbarrow, holding it high above his head. The corners of his smile touched at his eyes as he bellowed with laughter.

"HAHAHAHAA! TAKE THIS! HAH!" The wheelbarrow went sailing through the air, crashing into a tree, rattling the branches.

"Asriel! What are you doing?!"

He spun around, and you shot back again to avoid his bear-hug. His arms clapped together at his sides, the joy on his face as he hopped up and down in excitement.

"I'm just testing something is all."

His eyes opened and dropped down to your pants pocket, where the handles of the scissors poked out. Faster than you could realize, his paw shot out and grabbed the tool, snipping it in the air like a child. "Perfect!"

For the next ten minutes, you watched in baffled silence as Asriel danced his way through the Ruins, cutting apart every plant in his path. When he finally came back to your side, his smile had yet to go down. You dropped your hands to your hips, the way a disapproving mother would.

"Are you done being crazy now?"

He looked down at you, his eyes glittering. "Of course! Its been a long time since I could be this sane."


End file.
